Why base our understanding on the Gospels? What about other Gospels? Why treat Jesus the man the same as God the Creator? Why did Jesus not say definitely that he is God?
The Holy Spirit seen to be God
Isn’t the Holy Spirit the same as the angel Gabriel?
How do we relate to the Trinity?
The Trinity
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Matthew 28:19
These words of Jesus are his only recorded words where he speaks of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit together. These three make up the Christian Trinity, describing God, yet the word ‘Trinity is not in the Bible. How did Christians come to think and talk of God as the Trinity?
Jesus was active only for the last 3 years of his life. After he had physically left this world, his followers were left with the question, ‘Who was he?’ After much discussion and debate over about 200 years, Christians formally agreed a strange, unique, answer to this question: Jesus was, and is, the Son of God, both fully man and fully God.
A similar process happened with understanding the Holy Spirit: ‘Who was he, who is he?’ Eventually Christians agreed that the Holy Spirit is God himself, active in Christians and in the world.
These mind-boggling conclusions led Christians to say that the Father in heaven to whom Jesus prayed is God and Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God and they are not three separate gods but one God. Even more mind-boggling! God is both one and three at the same time. Christians invented a new word to describe this God: The Tri-Unity or The Trinity – Father Son and Holy Spirit.
Christians would not have said such bizarre things unless they felt they had to. They took seriously the concern that new people find the Trinity mind-boggling and off-putting but could see no alternative.
Jesus seen to be God
Christians said, and say today, that the Trinity is the only way of understanding God which takes seriously everything written about Jesus in the Gospels, the four early biographies of Jesus. If we cut out or discount large parts of what was written about Jesus, or claim that a different, later, view of Jesus is better, we can come to a different understanding of God. But Christians have to take seriously what was written about Jesus by the people closest to him. This means Christians consider that we have to understand God as the Trinity.
Why base our understanding on the Gospels?
We know that the Gospels were written within a generation of Jesus and contain the memories of people who knew Jesus well.
The best historical research in modern universities has concluded that Mark was the first Gospel-biography to be written, about 65 AD, followed by Luke and Matthew, about 75 AD, followed by John about 90 AD. Jesus died about 30 AD. All four Gospels were complete in less time than between now and the Second World War. When they were written, there were people alive who could have said ‘No. That didn’t happen like that. Jesus said nothing like that.’ There was not enough time for the memories to become significantly stretched, distorted.
Memories were not passed on by word of mouth through many people before they were written down. Mark, who had not known Jesus himself, collected memories from people who had had contact with Jesus, or from people who knew someone who had known Jesus. He put these memories together in his biography. Luke copied what Mark had written and included what he had heard from other people. Matthew did the same, including some of the same memories as Luke and some others. John, aware of Mark’s Gospel, wrote more, separately, including his own memories
The beginning of Mark’s Gospel is written from the point of view of Peter. We read nothing that Peter was not directly aware of – being called by Jesus as he was fishing, Jesus teaching and healing in Peter’s Synagogue and in Peter’s house, Peter and others looking for Jesus early in the morning and being invited to join Jesus touring neighbouring towns. The simplest, and therefore best, explanation was that Mark wrote down what Peter, or someone who knew Peter very well, had told him.
When Luke wrote about Jesus’ birth, he included details from a woman’s point of view – a baby leaping inside the womb, Jesus’ first baby clothes. Luke wrote this beginning part of his Gospel from the point of view of Mary – we read nothing that Mary was not directly aware of. The simplest, and therefore best, explanation was that Luke wrote down what Mary, or someone who knew Mary very well, had told him.
What about other Gospels?
Many years later, long after the eye-witness generation had died, a few people wrote their own biographies of Jesus – the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary. Ever since, various people have written their own stories about Jesus. None of these later stories can be as accurate as the earlier ones. Why trust what was written 500 years after Jesus lived as opposed to what was written 35 years after Jesus lived?
Why treat Jesus the man the same as God the Creator?
Because this is the implication of what Jesus said and did. The Gospels describe many ways in which Jesus spoke or acted like God, as though he was God.
At the great meal on the night before he died, Jesus made a strong implication that he was God. His words are recorded in the Gospels and also in one of Paul’s letters. Paul first letter to the Christians living in the town of Corinth, Greece (1 Corinthians in the Bible) was written in 53-54 AD only 23 years after Jesus died.
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’
1 Corinthians 11:23-25
Jesus took and shared bread and wine at a Jewish Passover Supper, which always included sharing bread and wine. Jewish people believed then and believe today that they were commanded to eat this meal, in a certain way, every year, to remember what God had done in rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. (Exodus 12: 1-28) The meal was already a remembrance meal – remembering what God had done. Jesus took the key parts of the meal and said ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’ He was saying ‘You know this bread and wine is for remembering God. Now use it to remember me.’
Jesus acted like someone taking the Remembrance Day poppy and saying ‘Wear this to remember me.’ Except that the poppy is for remembering soldiers and the Passover is for remembering God. ‘Keep doing this to remember me in the same way you remember God.’ Jesus was putting himself in the place of God. Someone who was only a teacher, or a prophet, would not say this.
Was Jesus crazy or power-hungry or was he, in some mind-boggling way, God himself?
The Gospels also describe Jesus
1 Teaching with divine authority. (Mark 1:22, 4:9) Jesus did not always say ‘This is what the great teachers have said.’ He did not say ‘I’m only the messenger…’ He said ‘I am telling you this… Even if this is different from what you understand God to have said, believe it because I am telling you.’ (Matthew 5: 34, 38, 44) Jesus said the best way to live is by putting what he said, not what God said, into practice. (Matthew 7:24) Jesus did not say ‘Follow God,’ he said ‘Follow me’ (Mark 1: 17, Luke 5:27)
2 Healing with divine authority. No human teacher or prophet healed so many people, including those born with disabilities, and did not give all the credit to God. Jesus carried out many healings, described in all the Gospels, with power that could only come from God. He acted as though it was just what he did naturally, according to his own nature.
3 Forgiving people with divine authority. (Luke 5:20, 7:48) For the religious leaders of the time, and of any time, it is outrageous for a man to tell someone that their sins are forgiven. If I stab you, leaving you bleeding on the street, and someone else comes and says to me ‘Roger, you’re forgiven,’ you would be furious. ‘Who is he to say that?’ The injury wasn’t done to the third person, it was done to you. Who does this man think he is to forgive something which has nothing to do with him?’
4 Talking of himself as the divine shepherd.
‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away-and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
John 10:11-14
The people who heard Jesus knew that the Bible speaks of God as the good shepherd.
For thus says the Lord Goo: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
Ezekiel 34:11-12
Jesus was saying that he is the shepherd in the same way that God is the shepherd.
5 Dying because he was considered to be blaspheming, putting himself in the place of God. (Mark 14:60-64, Luke 22:66-71, Matthew 26:62-66) The Gospels are clear that Jesus’ ‘crime’ was a religious one. There was no other reason to kill him. The religious leaders recognised that Jesus was putting himself in the place of God, threatening to distort their whole religion. This was why he had to die.
Why did Jesus not say definitely that he is God?
Because then he would not have been acting like God!
We have many different religions, many different understandings of God. Some people are convinced there is no God. We have pointers to God’s existence and pointers to there being no God. We have no proof he is there. God could easily make himself obvious to everyone but he doesn’t. He doesn’t proclaim who he is in a way that is beyond doubt. God keeps himself half-hidden.
Jesus was exactly the same. He didn’t make himself obvious. He didn’t proclaim who he was in a way that was beyond doubt.
Jesus gave many pointers to himself as God. Christians have looked at the pointers and decided they point to Jesus being God, part of The Trinity.
The Holy Spirit seen to be God
… the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.
John 14:26
Jesus talked of the Holy Spirit as someone who would come ‘in my name’ – someone acting the same as him. If Jesus was God, the Holy Spirit is also God. The Holy Spirit would also teach everything. No human teacher, not even an angel teacher, knows everything. Only God knows everything and can therefore teach everything.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
John 16:13
Jesus said the Holy Spirit would guide Christians into all the truth. He would guide us like a shepherd guiding sheep, like him, like God the Father. The Holy Spirit knows all the truth. Only God knows all the truth, so the Holy Spirit must be God.
For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials…:
Acts 15:28
Luke described how Christian leaders had gathered together to address a great controversy about the will of God. In declaring ‘it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit…’ they were saying that the Holy Spirit had spoken to them in a way that developed what God had said to Moses, as recorded in the Jewish Scriptures. The Holy Spirit speaking to them had the same authority as the God who spoke to Moses. We see that the first Christians understood the leading of the Holy Spirit to be the leading of God.
The Holy Spirit did not just come following Jesus, the Holy Spirit was present at the creation of the world as a wind. (Genesis 1:2) The Holy Spirit created Jesus in Mary’s womb. (Luke 1: 35) In some ways the Holy Spirit follows Jesus, in some ways he was before him. The Holy Spirit cannot be less than Jesus.
Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as equal to himself and to God the Father when he told his disciples to baptise in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (Matthew 28:19)
Paul then wrote in a similar way
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
2 Corinthians 13:14
Paul wrote of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all linked together, as Jesus had said, with no one of the three above any other. Paul placed the man Jesus first, before God, which would have been unthinkable before people had encountered and marvelled at and thought deeply about this man who was also God. Paul also understood the Holy Spirit to be as divine as Jesus and as God the Father. Otherwise he would not have linked them together as he did.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?
1 Corinthians 6:19
Paul twice wrote of the Holy Spirit dwelling in people, in the church and in individual Christians, as God was understood in the Old Testament to dwell in the Temple. From the Scriptures before Jesus, we know that the Temple is the place of God’s particular presence, although God is also greater than the Temple. Paul wrote that the presence of God in the Old Testament is now known as the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God present. Paul wrote assuming that his readers know this ‘do you not know…?’. This is a truth which all Christians at the time understood.
‘Ananias,’ Peter asked, ‘why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? 4While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, were not the proceeds at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You did not lie to us but to God!’
Acts 5:3,4
Luke described Peter rebuking a man who had pretended he had given more money to the church than he had. Peter said he lied to the Holy Spirit, which was lying to God. Peter, and Luke, understood that the Holy Spirit was God.
Christians have looked at the way Jesus, Paul, Peter and Luke talked or wrote about the Holy Spirit and decided they understood the Holy Spirit to be God.
Isn’t the Holy Spirit the same as the angel Gabriel?
This is the Muslim understanding. The Christian understanding is different. In Luke 1 we read of the angel Gabriel coming to Mary and talking to her about the Holy Spirit. Gabriel talked of the Holy Spirit as separate from himself.
How do we relate to the Trinity?
We have a God who is bigger than our human minds. If God could fully fit into our human understanding, could he really be God?
We can pray to our Father in heaven, as Jesus did and told us to do. (Matthew 6:9, Luke 11:2) We can pray to Jesus, our Brother (Hebrews 2:11), our Lord and our God (John 20:28) We can pray to the Holy Spirit, ‘Come, Holy Spirit!’ Praying to one is praying to all three. They are very close and share everything. At different times, with different needs, we are free to approach any member of the Trinity.
Each member of the Trinity is a person, with whom we have a personal relationship. The relationship feels a little different for each person of the Trinity, partly because we look up to our Father n heaven, we look next to us to Jesus with us always, and we look inside us to the Holy Spirit flowing from our bellies. (John 7:38 The Greek word is literally belly, not heart.) Our own life experience may also make us more comfortable talking to our Father or to Jesus, or to the Holy Spirit. For the full relationship with the Trinity it is good to talk to, have a relationship with, all of them. We can say ‘Good morning,’ ‘Good afternoon,’ ‘Good evening’ or ‘Good night’ to each person of the Trinity.
Do you want to know one member of the Trinity more? Talk to them more and ask the others to help.
If you want to know God as Father more, call out ‘Abba Father…’ (Abba means Dad in Hebrew. He is Jesus’ Father first, now our adoptive Father also.) Ask Jesus to bring you to the Father (John 14:6) Ask the Holy Spirit to call ‘Abba, Father!’ from inside you. (Romans 8:16,17)
If you want to know Jesus more, talk to him as your brother, using his name, ‘Jesus’, more than his title, ‘Lord.’ Ask the Holy Spirit to show you more of Jesus. Ask Abba Father to give you more understanding of Jesus.
If you want to know the Holy Spirit more, invite him, often: ‘Come, Holy Spirit.’ Ask Abba Father to send the Holy Spirit to you in a fresh way. Ask Jesus to breathe into you so you can receive more Holy Spirit.
We have a Father in heaven who loves us and provides for us constantly as God. We have Jesus, the man like us, who teaches and heals and forgives and leads us as God. We have the Holy Spirit who energises us and guides us and flows in us as God. They are all one. Our faith is a rich and complex faith, more than anyone could ever have invented. Alleluia!